The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency confirmed the return of a space capsule last night which may contain a sample of asteroid Itokawa.
The seven-year mission saw the agency's Hayabusa explorer travel 4 billion miles to visit Itokawa, a 540 meter-long asteroid, collect a dust sample from its surface and return to Earth. A specially-designed capsule containing the sample parachuted back to Earth after being ejected from the Hayabusa spacecraft and landed in the Woomera area in southern Australia at 11.56pm Tokyo time.
